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Bradley Wiggins becomes first Brit to win the Tour, now on to the London Olympics

Congratulations to Bradley Wiggins for winning this years 99th Tour de France. Bradley became the first British rider to win the 3,479km epic race with a 3min 21sec lead over British team-mate Chris Froome after Sunday’s 20th and last stage to Paris.

Here is a piece from Bradley himself in the Guardian, talking about a childhood dream come true.

A childhood dream comes true – now it’s got to be Games gold
Bradley Wiggins, the first British winner of the Tour de France, on riding up the Champs-Élysées and what comes after.
Bradley Wiggins
Sunday 22 July 2012

There is a set of railings, about six or eight of them, just before the entrance to the Place de la Concorde, about a kilometre from the Tour de France finish on the Champs-Élysées. I stood on those railings with my brother and my mum on 25 July 1993 watching the Tour de France go past.

It all went by in a flash, but I spotted Miguel Indurain in the yellow jersey – about to win his third Tour in a row – and Gianni Bugno in the rainbow jersey of world champion.

It was my first sight of the Tour. We’d come over from London for the weekend, gone up the Eiffel Tower the day before, then watched the Tour come into town on the Sunday. I remember thinking how big it was, how huge it was, seeing the riders whizzing past. I never imagined that 19 years later I’d be coming down there in the same position as Indurain.

It sounds cliched, but it’s the stuff of childhood dreams really. It’s what I’ve dreamed of for 20 years but I never dreamed it could become reality.